Dash Dash Dot Dot

Library

Matthew barely took his eyes off the house across the road, at some point someone brought him a torch so he wasn’t sitting in complete darkness, but he barely took any notice. The curtain moved every now and then as the survivor peeked out. The zombies were becoming less frenzied, growing bored of not finding something to eat, and they started wandering away from the car. He felt wide awake; his adrenaline was still pumping through his body. He hated being stuck behind the fence, not able to help the survivor, but the committee was right, it was too dangerous to attempt a rescue at night and for the safety of everyone they had to wait for the frenzied zombies to calm down again as the frenzy made them far more dangerous than when in a calm state.

He looked through the binoculars at the window. He saw light flicker, it looked like a lighter? The survivor must have realized that he was watching them. The flickering seemed deliberate, maybe a signal? Probably an SOS. He lifted his bag, holding it in front of the torch to show that he was aware that they were there. It was all he could do for now. The flickering light stopped and the curtain was pulled back across the window. Considering the late hour the survivor was probably going to sleep. He let out a sigh and sat back in the chair that had been attached to the roof of the vehicle so he could keep an eye on the situation. He hoped that whoever the survivor was that they didn’t try to do anything by risking their lives, before the faction could collect them.

He hoped the flickering lights between them had been enough to show that they would be rescued once it was safe to do so. The only thing left to do now was to wait till morning to hear what the committee had come up with for the rescue mission. This would be the first time that the faction would be doing something like this, usually they would just come across survivors during their supply runs, everyone was extended an invitation to the faction. There was only one person that had refused the invitation so far, but he still remained on friendly terms with the faction. If they came across each other during a supply run he would run with them and help. He would also bring any survivors he found to the faction. He stayed in a block of apartments that was close to the high school, he could see the fence from the second and third floor windows.

Matthew liked him; he was a nice guy, and he was only a few years older than himself, the faction knew him only as Andy. They often discussed life prior to the outbreak while on supply runs together. Both had been avid gamers and played many of the same games. They bonded over their common games, talking about the good and bad things that would happen when playing with random people online.

***

Matthew watched the sky brightened as the night faded away. He looked across at the house where the survivors were and then turned his gaze to the street, looking for any zombies. There were none around the car, and around the house looked clear too. He heard someone behind him so he turned. It was Richard.

"Hey Matt, I've been sent to take over, the committee wants to speak with you." He climbed up onto the vehicle next to the younger man. "What am I watching?"

Matt pointed at the house across the road. "That one there. I think there's at least two survivors in that house. One of them signaled last night with what I assume to be a lighter, it was only a small flame, but in the dark I could see it. I did my best to signal back by covering the torch, then the curtain was drawn and I haven't seen any movement since, they probably went to sleep. I just hope they understand that it was too dangerous to attempt a rescue yesterday. From what I can see there are no zombies hanging around the car or house." He handed Richard his binoculars. "Here, this will make it easier to see any movement with the curtains." Then he slung his quiver and bow over his shoulder and jumped off the vehicle.

The committee chose the library for meetings; they could sit on the upper most level without being disturbed, so that was where he headed. The coffee rounds had just started and he grabbed a mug as they passed him. He sipped the bitter liquid as he walked through the door of the library, looking up he saw the committee waving towards him from the top level. With the caffeine hitting his stomach he skipped up the stairs towards the committee.

"Morning," he greeted the five people. After exchanging pleasantries and Matthew informing them of the light signal and the fact that he didn't see any zombies in the immediate vicinity of the house. They asked him a few questions, his opinion about their plan and if he thought any adjustments needed to be made. "If we make some noise on the other side of the yard, attracting the zombies near the fence away from the side where the survivors are. As much as I want to do a fence hop, it may be a bit difficult with the double fence on that side." He looked at the committee members. "That or we do a cull of those around the fence, I mean we have quite a few hovering right now, which could be dangerous, especially for new survivors to reach us, I mean, that's essentially what happened yesterday. The survivors were trying to get here and then they saw those zombies in front of them, as well as behind." He shrugged casually. "It would have been easier if they had actually made it to the gate, rather than the street along the residential side of the school."

"A cull will take some time." Banjo said, "But maybe there is something to the fence hop idea. We need to somehow communicate with the survivors before they can attempt to leave the house. What they do, if they come out too early, may compromise what we want to do, which could turn the situation dangerous again. Perhaps we can send someone over the fence and to the house?"

"That's a risky move, but it could work, provided there are no zombies between the fences and the house where the survivors are holed up, it should be an easy dash across the road." John spoke, agreeing with Banjo.

"We could always shoot them a message?" Matthew said, more to himself than to the committee members.

"What?" Lee asked, her face screwed up in confusion, everyone else at the table looked at him with confusion on their faces too, except Heather, who actually had a smile plastered on hers.

"Genius! But can you make the distance?" She asked. The others now looked at her in confusion. She laughed and shook her head. "We attach a message to an arrow and Matt can shoot it at the door or something." The others nodded as she explained. "That way the survivors know we are in the process of saving them, and they won’t leave the house until we are ready for them to do so. And then we can get to work on the cull."

"So, can you make the distance? We don't want them coming out to grab the arrow if it falls too short. We know you're the best in the faction with a bow but the distance might still be too much." Raj piped up.

"So we need to get a map of the area and measure the distance. How far can you shoot?" Lee asked as she headed down the stairs. Everyone followed.

"The last distance that I recorded was around the 120 meter mark." Matthew told her.

"Very good, that should be sufficient." She stopped outside the librarian’s office and opened the door; she opened the large desk drawer and pulled out a street map guide. She placed the thick book on the reception desk and flicked it open to where is showed the school. "Alright, and you think the survivors are in which house?"

"Number three." Lee grabbed the ruler off the desk and measured the distance guide. "The car that I can see the house from is here." He pointed to the map. "It looks down between these two houses." She nodded and placed the ruler across the section that he indicated.

"Looks to be roughly eighty meters, so the distance should be fine. But if you're looking between the two houses then you also have that to contend with, but we have faith in your ability." Lee said.

"Well then, let's get to work on the letter we are going to shoot them." John said clapping his hands in front of him.